Patch 5.6

What's that? That's the sound of the second 2015 buff barge, departing from... buff island? Look, we don't know where the buff barge actually stays in its off season. All we do know is that Sometimes this thing docks somewhere, takes on a bunch of friends, and then sails off for the high seas.

Anyway. What this actually means is that we've got a lot of changes aimed at champions who have received less attention in the past few months (or dozen months). Mind you, we're not going to be making a habit of this (power creep is a deep rabbit hole, but the summary is that constantly buffing weak champions means we're just throwing out a lot of power without a functional direction) and we're not in the business of just buffing for the sake of buffing, but felt we could at least give these girls (and guys and Bards) something directionally correct.

Speaking of power creep, there are a few champs we know overstayed their welcome on the buff barge, and we're taking steps to bring them back in line. Nothing should really come as a surprise (hello Sejuani) and we'll go into more detail on each individual context.

Speaking of using the same transition to advance the conversation, we're currently happy with the new addition of jungler diversity in a post-patch 5.5 world. While very strong tank junglers are obviously top of mind, we're excited to see a shift in a positive direction. Remember that we're committed to constantly evolving the League experience, so expect us to continue iterating whenever possible.

That's it.

Go read the notes.

Toot.

Chris "Pwyff" Tom & Patrick "Scarizard" Scarborough

Champions

"Often times Aatrox would find himself wanting to use Dark Flight for a massive knockup into the enemy team, only realizing he didn't have much to be doing once he was in. Whether you're diving the backlines or just brawling the old-fashioned way, Massacre makes sure you've got enough fire in your veins when you decide to dive-kick your way into combat. "

R - Massacre

[NEW]DRINK THEIR BLOOD : Now grants 20% of Maximum Blood Well for each enemy hit

This wasn't the most abusive thing around because it requires you to be out of mana, so you couldn't very well gank or defend yourself, but nonetheless unintended. Don't cry, Amumu (at least wait until you have enough mana)."

W - Despair

NO MORE TEARS : Fixed a bug where Despair would not toggle off when Amumu ran out of mana

"For a long time we've been pushing Annie into being League's Premier "bear-mage" (that's a thing), be it by lowering Tibbers' cooldown, giving him better defenses, or sharing Molten Shield. With plays beginning to fully respect Tibbers as an entity (he has feelings too, you know), we're pulling back on some of the free damage you get just for being within hugging distance. "

"Bard's been out for less than a patch, and while we're already seeing the growing pains of players and teammates alike coordinating around his unique abilities, it's clear he released on the wrong note. We're taking it slow for now, but some more power on Q and some improvements to his signature E means that you'll have a better time on your Magical Journeys this patch...assuming bard isn't too busy collecting chimes to open one for you."

General

NO MORE LICHBANE : Bard's recommended items have been updates to reflect a more supportive playstyle

SPIRITED AWAY : Clicking on a Magical Journey portal is now more forgiving

TRAVEL GUIDE : Allies that go on a Magical Journey will grant Bard an assist on their kills for a short time afterwards

MAGICAL EQUALITY : Clones (such as those created by Shaco, Leblanc, Mordekaiser and Yorick) can now be commanded to take a Magical Journey

R - Tempered Fate

TEMPERED MONSTERS : Neutral Monsters will no longer have their health reset while under stasis

CassiopeiaCassiopeia gets less AP when combined with %AP amplifying effects

"Last patch we modified how the first Dragon buff interacts with Rabadon's Deathcap (from multiplicative to additive, with an expected ~1-2% ability power change), but failed to document the larger hit to Cassiopeia, who was tripling (quadrupling?) down on it with her passive, Dragon buff, masteries, and Rabadon's Deathcap. We're documenting it now and realize this is late game Cassi nerf, but we're watching how this shakes out first. "

LATE GAME CASSI NERF : Dragon buff and Rabadon's Deathcap now interact additively rather than multiplicatively. When these two ability power % modifications (and masteries) interact with Cassiopeia passive, they now give roughly ~12% less bonus ability power at late, late game.

"A champion that toes the line of viability, it's been a long time since we've seen Elise terrorizing the top tables. While the usability fix to Rappel shouldn't be understated (that move is really difficult to use), our changes are to increase power in ways that you can feel. A slight nerf to Elise's speed allows us to make her transformation even more deadly, and her cocoon follow-up a little easier to land. "

General

BASE MOVEMENT SPEED (HUMAN FORM) : 335⇒ 330

BASE MOVEMENT SPEED (SPIDER FORM) : 345⇒ 355

E - Rappel

USABILITY : Elise can now right click while in the air to descend on a target in addition to pressing E again

E - Cocoon

MISSILE SPEED : 1450⇒ 1600

EvelynnEvelynn stealths faster lategame. W now works off of spellcasts.

"For one of League's most tactical champions, Eve's been struggling since her days on top. While we've seen improvements with recent jungle changes, we wanted to play up some of Evelynn's unique positioning play. Skirting in and out of Shadow Walk becomes much faster later, keeping opponents guessing after clearing wards or attempting an ambush - combined with Dark Frenzy's spell-based cooldown paradigm, we're aiming for a more 'hit-and-run' pattern, giving her more control in bursts but less strength when just training someone down. "

"As of this writing, none of Galio's basic abilities had scaling cooldowns...UNTIL NOW. Righteous Gust is one of the gargoyle's cooler moves, so we're letting him toss some more tornadoes around as the game goes on."

"Balance Trivia! Despite the 'Better Nerf Irelia' jokes, did you know her last nerf was 3 years ago (March 2012), and that she's only been nerfed 4 times ever? We thought that was neat.

As for these changes, they're pretty light - Equilibrium Strike gives access to a heap of CC, easily turning a losing fight into a winning one. For being such a game-changer, we're lowering the amount of raw damage it does so she doesn't always come out of trades ahead. "

For one of the heaviest snowball champions in league, Katarina's lane-bully potential is enabled by having the base-stats to win wars of attrition with enemy mids, whittling them down for the kill. We're pulling back on that to give her opponents a better window of vulnerability to exploit. "

"Let's level here: We actually think LeBlanc is pretty okay. Though she's polarizing in the same way Nidalee can be when successful, she serves as a counterbalance to a lot of other strong picks and keeps things interesting. We're tuning her damage back slightly to relieve some of the pressure other midlaners have to deal with against her, but Leblanc as a champion is performing pretty close to our expectations overall."

R - Mimic

MIMIC: SIGIL OF MALICE RATIO : 0.65 ability power⇒ 0.6 ability power

MIMIC: DISTORTION RATIO : 0.975 ability power⇒ 0.9 ability power

MIMIC: ETHEREAL CHAINS RATIO : 0.65 ability power⇒ 0.6 ability power

LuxR does more damage when popping Lux's passive. (This was always intended, but not always functional)

"When we gave Illumination an AP ratio way back in 4.13, it worked when your basic attacks triggered it but never for Final Spark. For all you light mages out there: this adds a 20% AP ratio when banishing the shadows."

Nid's a polarizing champion where, when she succeeds, generates more hate posts on forums around the world than most other champions combined. That said, with tank junglers picking up steam, Nidalee's got some very real challenges coming her way. Hard engage has traditionally been one of Nidalee's big weaknesses - when she can't dictate the pace of a fight by wearing down her opponents - so if big, beefy champs are constantly running at her face (and this becomes a trend), we want to see what that world looks like before taking action. "

"For a champion that's not too far off the mark, the biggest pain point for Nocturne players is lacking enough opportunities to impact a game before it's too late, so we've cut the cooldown to give him just that. Don't worry Noc - we got your darkness right here. "

"Quinn's problems don't begin and end with Vault, but as one of the most flexible tools in her arsenal she'll often live or die by it. Smoothing out some interactions and fixing some bugs should see her and Valor's synergy in top form for the fighting, and now even resets her basic attack for some high-level Harrier optimization. Look Val, buffs! "

"We've all seen this one before. A true terror in toplane, Ryze has become a shadow of his former self - so we're slapping some charge back into Overload to see if we can't inch him back to reasonable levels. Carefully."

"One of the scarier opponents in the jungle pre-Cinderhulk, the changes to the jungle in 5.5 benefited no one champion greater than Sejuani. While we're not strictly nerfing her ability to jungle, we're aiming to reduce her damage spike midgame which often comes before opponents can itemize properly, let alone contain her spree of sustained lockdown. Finally, we're putting a real penalty for missing your bolas, as in a lot of cases the Sejuani that managed to miss was rewarded with such a heavy slow that many teams would just get run over anyways. "

"Whether he's shaking up the toplane or stirring up a skirmish, every player knows what happens when you mix it up with an unstoppable Singed. That said, when he finds himself unable to dive into the enemy team's deep end, even the Mad Chemist needs a pick-me-up. This should let him flexibly fling fighters out of the fray when the fight's not in his favor."

"Primarily thought of as top tier laner, Cinderhulk saw Sion shamble on into the jungle and dominate without breaking a sweat. The changes themselves are simple enough, but underscore an important point - Sion should be a powerful pick for the crowd control and durability he brings to a composition, not necessarily his damage output (especially when building tank)."

"A pungent late-game threat, Twitch combines damage, subterfuge and foul stenches to put teams on his back...given that you don't exterminate him before he scales up. Even with a weaker early-game than most other marksmen, we're adding some punch back to his poison to encourage and reward the smart trades so necessary to his success."

"After 5.2's updates, opponents are able to play around Event Horizon well enough that we decided to add something special to make it stand out as an ability. Coupled with some tuning to help his early laning, a master Veigar player can lock mobile enemies in his cage for him to torment without fear of them escaping his tiny clutches."

Passive - Equilibrium

MONSTERS : 250⇒ 300

Q - Baleful Strike

MANA REGEN : +1% per 1% missing mana⇒ +1.5% per 1% missing mana

RANGE : 850⇒ 950

E - Event Horizon

[NEW]DO NOT PASS GO : Enemy dashes through Event Horizon's walls will stop at them instead

"In this specific interaction, a Vel'Koz ulting in a bad spot wouldn't be able to click Thresh's Lantern to save himself - instead, needing to cancel using R and then click and usually dying anyways because that takes too long. Clicking now lets you passage to Thresh safely, undoing what may have been a poor decision. (Imagine if taking lantern didn't stop your ult though??)"

R - Life Form Disintegration Ray

[NEW]KEEP AN EYE OUT : Vel'Koz can now cancel his ultimate by taking Thresh's Lantern

"Most of our basic attack resets (that don't come paired with dashes or some other mobility) have a little bit of extra reach to make them easier to connect. Omen of War didn't, so we're hooking him up with some range and a sweet animation to ensure whoever's on the other end will remember Yorick Mori. "

Q - Omen of War

[NEW]FOR SHOVELRY : Yorick now uses his Critical Strike animation when hitting people with Omen of War

"Hoo boy. Ziggs buffs. Long since the poster-child for stalling games and siege stand-stills, this lovable lunatic hasn't been able to keep up his special brand of madness against the top players in midlane for a while. Thanks to the season's changes making mana regeneration weaker, we feel comfortable adding some fuel to the fire and letting him get back to bombarding as usual. "

"While we've been digging the future Zilean's update set out for him, we realize that we missed the mark numbers-wise (especially for midlane). These changes are all about enabling him to take risks on making intricate plays and ensuring he's rewarded should he succeed. "

General

HEALTH PER LEVEL : 71⇒ 77

Q - Time Bomb

RATIO : 0.8 ability power⇒ 0.9 ability power

COST : 60/70/80/90/100 mana⇒ 60/65/70/75/80 mana

W - Rewind

COOLDOWN : 18/15/12/9/6 seconds⇒ 14/12/10/8/6 seconds

COST : 50 mana⇒ 35 mana

E - Time Warp

COST : 50/55/60/65/70 mana⇒ 50 mana

Mass Texture Rebalance (Part 9)

"We're continuing our comprehensive pass at the game's older character textures. As with previous installments, our goal is to improve parity with newer releases and make sure everybody looks at home on the Rift. "

Items

"The challenge with Athene's Unholy Grail is that it's an item basically designed for passive play. Defensive stats, tons of mana regeneration (and, in previous iterations, mana regen that ramped up the more mana you used), cooldown reduction - you get the deal. Because of this, we're a little reticent to just outright bring this bad boy back onto the scene. That said, there's also (currently) a world where Morellonomicon is the default mana regeneration item, which skews certain stats (healing, health regeneration) in different ways as well. We're trying hard not to make this a patch note about Morellonomicon (too late), but can at least afford to bring some parity between mana regeneration items."

GLORIOUS STRUCTURES : Fixed a bug where you wouldn't get the active movement speed running towards turrets and capture points

Summoner's Rift

Rift ScuttlerFixed a bug where the Scuttler's vision radius was much larger than the speed shrine it was intended to cover.

"This is a pretty significant range reduction on vision, but when gameplay doesn't match up with actual visuals, something's gotta give. There's an argument to be made that the shrine buff should be increased to 1350 to match the bugged vision, but then you'd be crazy. "

VISION RADIUS : 1350⇒ 525

Base Gates

THE GATES ARE OPEN : You can now summon pets, structures, and minions in your team's base gates (i.e. Void Portal's, Heimerdinger Turrets, Shaco's Jack-in-the-box)

Jungle XPJungle gives more base experience at higher levels.

"In terms of early level progression, we intend for junglers to be somewhere between solo lanes and duo lanes - with successful junglers edging more toward solo lane level progression. Right now, however, jungle experience falls off a little too hard, which means junglers have a tougher time keeping up. These seem like small bumps, but we know these kind of changes can have dramatic impacts, so we're proceeding carefully. "

LEVELS 1-4 : Unchanged

LEVELS 5-7 : 3% more experience

LEVELS 8-10 : 6% more experience

LEVELS 11-18 : 10% more experience

Post-Beta Updates

"We've got a few more updates for Summoner's Rift in the wake of the beta's conclusion! In one case the update is actually an un-update - we've noticed the new animated victory/defeat screens have been causing performance issues for some of you, so we're taking them back offline while we fix the problem."

[NEW]DRAMATIC EFFECT : New champion select music has been added for Summoner's Rift queues!

MORE TEXTURE WORK : Adjusted terrain detail in a number of locations

CONSISTENT MESSAGING : "Beta" has been removed from the Summoner's Rift map name in various queue/lobby locations

[REMOVED]CALL IT A TEASER : The animated victory/defeat screens have been deactivated while we resolve a performance issue

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